Abstract:
In Miami, two newly arrived molecular pathologists are working on a test to detect cancer in the blood, and they say the test could be in use in three or four years. Drs. Richard Cote and Ram Datar, recently recruited from the University of Southern California, will run a Biomedical Nanoscience Institute being set up at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, giving South Florida a central role in the future of medical nanotechnology.

The two are using the science to build devices that will perform dozens of "instant biopsy" tests on a pin-prick of blood and capture tumor cells circulating in the bloodstream.

They don't hide their excitement.

"The integration of nanotechnology and medicine has the potential to revolutionize our approach to human disease," said Cote, who will direct the institute and become chair of UM's department of pathology.

In medicine, nanotech devices are in clinical trials that would carry medicine directly inside cancer cells, sparing the patient from chemotherapy's nausea and hair loss.